WASHINGTON, DC – YouTube has announced today it will begin removing videos from its platform in an attempt to stop the spread of what it calls, “misinformation” regarding the 2020 election.
“Over the past weeks and months, we’ve seen people coming to YouTube to learn more about where and how to vote or learning more about a candidate or an issue. We’ve seen news organizations grow their audience. And we’ve seen people turn to YouTube for the latest election results or simply to follow an historic event with the highest voting turnout in over a century in the U.S,”
YouTube said on Wednesday. “Our main goal going into the election season was to make sure we’re connecting people with authoritative information, while also limiting the reach of misinformation and removing harmful content. The work here is ongoing and we wanted to provide an update. ”
YouTube said videos that go against the idea that Joe Biden hands-down won the 2020 election for President would be removed and the company had terminated 8,000 channels and deleted thousands of “harmful” videos that dared to explore President Donald J. Trump’s claims of election interference.
“Our Community Guidelines prohibit spam, scams, or other manipulated media, coordinated influence operations, and any content that seeks to incite violence. Since September, we’ve terminated over 8000 channels and thousands of harmful and misleading elections-related videos for violating our existing policies. Over 77% of those removed videos were taken down before they had 100 views,” You Tube said. “We also work to make sure that the line between what is removed and what is allowed is drawn in the right place. Our policies prohibit misleading viewers about where and how to vote. We also disallow content alleging widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of a historical U.S. Presidential election. However in some cases, that has meant allowing controversial views on the outcome or process of counting votes of a current election as election officials have worked to finalize counts. ”
Google said the election is now final and anyone on their platform who says differently will be banned and removed. All videos referring to the possibility that there could have been voter fraud, software glitches or counting efforts will be removed unless they provided scientific, artistic or documentary evidence to the contrary.
The action is great news for YouTube competitor Parler which has seen an uptick in new subscribers since former began silencing dissenting opinions.